The other day I found this size 20W Boden skirt in the thrift shop and fell in love with the colorblocking, asymmetry, and geometric shapes. I have a coworker who is absolutely in love with Boden, and no wonder. Their stuff is super cute, well made, and impeccably styled in their catalogues. So maybe she had something to do with my bringing this home as well =).

As you could see in the "before" photo, it was about 13" too big for me as well as 2.5" too long (I like my skirts to fall below the knee, but not that far below the knee). First I hemmed both the lining and the skirt shorter, then treated both as one piece of fabric. Because I wanted to keep the pockets, I knew I had to refashion this from the center instead of bringing in the side seams. I simply folded it in by 6.5" at the middle back to create a back seam, and then created a 6.5" boxpleat down the center front.

(Back seam, edges trimmed and zigzagged)

(Front boxpleat. I stitched it down partway and then topstitched it to reinforce the pleat)

I don't think it's too noticeable that there's a new center back seam, do you?

Just as I was finishing this up, my roommate walks in and says, "Oh, those are my favorite colors!"

Sigh.

So I'm giving it to her. Which is just as well. I love it, the fit is perfect and I think it's adorable, but if I'm honest with myself I probably wouldn't wear it as often as I'd like ... and I like the clothes in my closet to pull their weight! I just can't picture what I'd wear it with, other than white or black or maybe gray (and I don't have any gray blouses in my closet. Or I have one thrifted one but it has red polka dots on it and I don't think that would work). So ... off it went to feed my roommate karma.

You know what I like though? I like how all the photos I took of it, caught me with the exact same expression on my face. Oh, and in the same pose.

I also ... hate to admit this ... but indulging in some non-selfish crafting feels surprisingly good!

I like coming up with multiple iterations of the same concept. Makes me feel ... resourceful ... somehow. Creative. A "don't matter what item you fish up at the thrift shop, you'll find some way to reuse it" kind of gal. Sort of. But it's a cool feeling, three years into this refashioning thing.

6 comments:

Maybe you have now earned yourself some good karma by giving the skirt away! It looked great . I like Boden's colours and have bought some of their knitwear and tees in the charity shop! I once went to one of their catalogue end of range sales in a big hall. Quite an experience. But what struck me was how almost all their clothes looked so good and flattering on all the women in the changing rooms...they must be doing something right in the design stage.

There's the creative side of refashioning - but equally and maybe more appealing to me sometimes is the problem-solving! I was thinking yesterday how I really love sewing because it's like solving one great big puzzle with lots of small puzzles embedded. Very cool! Also love the colors on that skirt.

If I couldn't keep any item that didn't go with at least 3 other things in my wardrobe, I'd only have a handful of black tops and bottoms left!No matter how many style books I read, I still can't seem to get that perfect capsule wardrobe they talk about.not that I care so much...